Yasmine Hamza is clearly on the road to success.

South Tyrolean badminton player wins Olympic qualifying tournament

Yasmine Hamza won a world singles rankings tournament for the second time in her career in Chile's capital Santiago on Sunday. This victory gives her important points for qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. At just 19 years old, Hamza broke other South Tyrolean badminton records.

June 05, 2023

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21:10, 21:16 against Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar from Peru, number 1 in the tournament and number 89 in the world. Hamza swept over her opponent from Peru like a hurricane in the final of the Chile Futures. “She played at a high tempo and, above all, made a big leap mentally,” said coach father Csaba Hamza. Evidence of his daughter's maturation process is also the 21:14, 21:19 victory in the semifinals over Hristomira Popovska. She had lost both previous comparisons against the Bulgarian.

With the tournament win, Hamza moves into the top 100 in the world and thus to her best ranking to date. Winning the tournament is also important for the Olympic qualification, which began at the beginning of May. From there, the 10 best results achieved by the end of April 2024 will count. As of today, Hamza would be the first South Tyrolean badminton player to qualify for the Olympic Games. But there is still a long way to go before getting a ticket to the Olympics. Judith Mair from Mals reached the semi-finals in Chile. Italy also celebrated Fabio Caponio's victory in the men's singles.

Fabio Caponio and Yasmine Hamza are happy about their tournament victories.

As a teenager, Hamza broke almost all South Tyrolean records in world ranking tournaments. The player registered for SSV Bozen now has four tournament wins (two in singles, two in doubles) and 16 podium places. This meant she was on the podium more times than record Italian champion Klaus Raffeiner.

For Hamza things continue this week. In Santo Domingo (International Series) she is the defending champion. At the end of June, the 19-year-old will represent Italy at the European Games in Tarnow, Poland.